Apple stopped bundling Java after OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, and in 2011 handed off development and patch maintenance to Oracle. Patches for Java 7 are thus not available to Lion and Mountain Lion -- OS X 10.7 and OS X 10.8, respectively -- via Apple's Software Update service, but must be retrieved from Oracle.

Oracle's early update came in the aftermath of several embarrassing "zero-day" vulnerabilities -- and the emergency patches necessary to quash those bugs -- as well as a commitment by the head of Java security that his team would fix flaws in the software.

The next Java update is scheduled for June 18, 2013. That update will only apply to Java 7, as Oracle ended support for Java 6 with last Friday's patches. In the absence of Oracle fixes, Apple will also stop issuing updates for Java 6 to Snow Leopard users.